Below is a Facebook post from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. In 2024, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation approved $35,000 to assist with this western Montana project. RMEF helped fund the initial 778-acre thinning project in 2022.
The Threemile Wildlife Management Area is managed by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) primarily to provide winter range habitat for big game. The agency works with local loggers to remove select trees – a process called thinning – followed by prescribed burning. The thinned, opened canopy improves game forage growth on the forest floor and reduces the risk of high-severity fire in the fire-adapted area.
This project wouldn’t be possible without the state’s existing forest products industry that Montana DNRC and FWP rely on to manage our forests. Jason Parke, forester with FWP, and Holly McKenzie, service forester with DNRC, explain a few reasons why:
- Active forest management is necessary in Montana’s fire-adapted forests and can reduce high-severity wildfire risk in the future.
- Selling wood that is sustainably harvested from project sites significantly reduces costs to state agencies and Montana taxpayers.
- Logging also helps support local forest industry workers and provide local wood for building materials, paper products, firewood, and more.
(Video credit: Emma Merdovic, Montana DNRC Forestry Assistance Specialist – Northwestern Land Office)